UNODC and Partners enhance capacity of law enforcement and justice practitioners of Kyrgyzstan on financial investigation of stolen assets

14 - 20 December 2022,Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

UNODC Programme Office in the Kyrgyz Republic in close cooperation with the Prosecutor General's Office and the State Financial Intelligence Service under the Ministry of Finance of the Kyrgyz Republic conducted two seminars focused on Improvement the efficiency of conducting parallel financial investigations and stollen asset recovery and enhancement of the effectiveness of interagency and international cooperation in parallel financial investigations and asset recovery.

 

Seminars were conducted for 25 representatives of law enforcement agencies and supervisory bodies, as well as 19 representatives of training and methodological centers under the competent authorities of the Kyrgyz Republic.

Head of the UNODC Programme Office in the Kyrgyz Republic, Mr. Andrey Seleznev highlighted that according to the assessment report of the UNODC International Expert, one of the strategic goals of the Kyrgyz Republic is to strengthen the capacity of law enforcement agencies in the field of conducting financial investigations of crimes generating significant criminal profit, including corruption, drug trafficking and theft of state property.

 

Mr. Igoris Krzeckovskis, UNODC International Expert presented the best practices of foreign law enforcement agencies (LEA) in conducting financial investigations with a focus on the identification of assets that are owned or controlled by the agents of criminal proceedings in a country and abroad. Special attention was paid to the experience of those foreign countries, whose legal framework is similar to the provisions of the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Kyrgyz Republic.

The participants of the seminars discussed practical issues faced by LEA in the field of controlling the costs of suspected persons, identifying property registered in the name of third parties, as well as tactics of conduct financial investigations. As noted, effective interagency and international cooperation in this field is a strong tool in the fight against corruption and organized crime.

 

Organized as part of the UNODC project "Support to the Kyrgyz Republic in the field of identification, confiscation and recovering the illicitly-acquired assets emanating from corruption activities" funded by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), UNODC international and national experts designed number of key interagency legal documents. They support the implementation of the provisions of the Interagency Action Plan developed under support of the UNODC Project and approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic on September 30, 2022.

 

These legal documents are aimed at improving the quality and coordination of the financial investigations process and ensuring strict control and coordination in the field of search and seizure of stolen assets as part of the preliminary investigation stage, including the process of collection of relevant statistical data.  It is planned to complete the review and adoption of the above-mentioned documents by relevant state authorities by the end of 2022.

***

For more information, contact Vasilina Brazhko (Ms.)

Communication and PR Specialist at

UNODC Criminal Justice &PVE Programmes

in Central Asia

UNODC PO in the Kyrgyz Republic

+996775987817 WhatsApp or

e-mail: vasilina.brazhko [at] un.org